Chef Joshua Acquaviva cooks a Maldives residency at Pibati

“We will begin with the essentials, well-rested dough, pasta made by hand, sauces developed with patience,” said Frank Wackerhagen, Executive Chef of Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, setting the bench work for ten days at Pibati Sul Mare. Chef Joshua Acquaviva, Head Chef of Pellico 3 at Park Hyatt Milan, will lead the Joshua Acquaviva Maldives residency from 25 October to 3 November 2026 at Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, cooking beside Wackerhagen and the island culinary team in Raa Atoll (Hospitalitynet¹).

The dates matter because the access is narrow. Acquaviva will leave his Milan station for a beachside Italian restaurant in the Maldives, then put guests close enough to the method to work with dough at Pibati’s counter. Pizza-making sessions are limited to eight participants; where demand requires, the resort will stagger sessions to keep the format small.

Why Joshua Acquaviva’s Maldives residency at Pibati Sul Mare belongs on the calendar

Acquaviva was born in Naples in 1995, and he has named pizza and pasta as part of the way he understands food. “Naples has shaped the way I understand food from the very beginning,” Acquaviva said. “Pasta and pizza are part of that identity, and they remain at the heart of how I cook today. (Hospitalitynet¹).

The Joshua Acquaviva Maldives residency runs for ten days, from 25 October to 3 November 2026, at Alila Kothaifaru Maldives in Raa Atoll. Alila Kothaifaru Maldives is an 80-villa resort in Raa Atoll. The resort has 41 beachfront villas, 36 overwater villas, three 2-bedroom beach villas, and the Boduge Residence, all positioned near Hanifaru Bay UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve (Hospitalitynet¹).

The Pizza Masterclass on 28 October and the Pasta Masterclass on 30 October each run from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Those are one-hour windows, with the guest close to dough, pasta, and sauce, and close enough to watch how Acquaviva carries a Neapolitan foundation into a kitchen built for island produce and herbs (Hospitalitynet¹).

Thomas Weber, General Manager of Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, described the collaboration as a meeting of two kitchens. “It is about creating space for two kitchens to meet, with respect for what each place brings,” Weber said. Acquaviva brings the memory and discipline of Naples and Italy’s fine-dining kitchens; Wackerhagen and the Pibati team bring the island station, the produce, the herbs, and the daily rhythm beside the sea (Linkedin²).

The Naples line: VistaMare, Kresios, Il Faro, Pellico 3

At VistaMare at Hotel Il Fogliano, he contributed during the period in which the restaurant earned its first Michelin star. He worked at the two-Michelin-starred Kresios in Telese. He then spent four years as sous chef at Il Faro di Capo d’Orso on the Amalfi Coast (Travelprnews³).

Within two years, he had moved to Head Chef. Within two years, he moved from station work to leading the pass inside one hotel kitchen.

The details matter more than the word Michelin on its own. VistaMare, Kresios, and Il Faro di Capo d’Orso place Acquaviva in kitchens where Italian cooking is pulled through fine-dining structure, coastal product, and service discipline. Pellico 3 places him in Milan, inside Park Hyatt Milan, with the responsibility of leading a restaurant. The Maldives residency moves that set of habits to Pibati Sul Mare for a fixed window, with Wackerhagen and the island team working bench-side.

Acquaviva’s emphasis on pizza and pasta also resists a common fine-dining temptation: leaving the ordinary forms behind. Pizza and pasta expose method quickly. Dough reveals its handling. Pasta reveals its hydration, rest, cut, and sauce. A sauce developed with patience, as Wackerhagen put it, has nowhere to hide when it meets a noodle or a base that has been worked in front of eight guests.

Pibati Sul Mare and the island-grown herbs

Pibati Sul Mare takes its name from the Sanskrit word “Pibati”, meaning “to drink, absorb or imbibe”. During the residency, the restaurant will combine Neapolitan-inspired pasta and pizza with produce and herbs grown on the island. The practical difference is the island produce and herbs. Acquaviva will cook Italian foundations in a kitchen where Kothaifaru enters through the herbs, the produce, and the way dishes are eaten beside the sea.

The restaurant’s usual frame already suits the residency. Pibati Sul Mare centers its menu on artisanal pizzas and handcrafted pastas, with the Indian Ocean beyond the table. The residency begins from a station already built around the forms he has identified as central to his cooking. For Wackerhagen and his team, it brings a Neapolitan cook into Pibati Sul Mare.

Wackerhagen’s comments also name the internal apprenticeship at stake. “Joshua and I share a respect for cooking that is clear, disciplined and rooted in strong foundations,” he said. He added that Pibati Sul Mare has a team of chefs who will work closely with Acquaviva, exchange ideas, and build on their craft together. The kitchen receives ten days of side-by-side repetition.

A visiting chef dinner can finish as a menu. A residency can alter the station for the people who remain after the guest chef leaves. If Acquaviva spends ten days on rested dough, hand-made pasta, and patient sauces with Wackerhagen’s team, the exchange becomes part of the kitchen’s muscle memory, even after 3 November.

Eight seats at the dough counter

The pizza-making sessions carry the clearest scarcity in the Joshua Acquaviva Maldives residency. Each session is limited to eight participants. The resort will arrange staggered sessions where demand requires to preserve the personal nature of the experience. Eight people at a counter can watch when the dough yields, when the hand stops pressing, and how a cook reads structure before the bake.

Between them sits Mare & Sapori, a 3-course lunch on Thursday, 29 October, from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM. The dinner, Where Milano Meets Maldives, runs on Saturday, 31 October, from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM as a 4-course dinner with Chef Joshua.

A one-hour pizza session with eight guests is a different kind of access from a plated menu. It moves the guest from the dining room into the logic of the bench: dough rest, handling, topping, and the chef’s sense of when to intervene. The Pasta Masterclass covers dough or pasta handling, sauce, and finish, with Acquaviva’s Naples line present in the form.

There is also a useful rhythm to the week. Pizza on 28 October, lunch on 29 October, pasta on 30 October, dinner on 31 October. Across those dates, the schedule moves from instruction to table, then back to instruction, then into the longer dinner service. The format lets the residency build by repetition.

Frank Wackerhagen, Thomas Weber, and the island team

The people around Acquaviva matter because a residency is never a solo act. Wackerhagen, as Executive Chef of Alila Kothaifaru Maldives, will collaborate with him throughout the residency. Weber, as General Manager, has named the purpose as a respectful meeting between the two kitchens. The Pibati team will work the service, the prep, and the exchange when Acquaviva steps into their station.

He said guests will have “rare access to the people and thinking behind each dish”, and he named intimacy as central to Alila’s idea of luxury. The craft shows most clearly when the guest can see the decision being made.

Wackerhagen’s role is equally important. He is setting the terms of collaboration for his team. His list of essentials, well-rested dough, pasta made by hand, sauces developed with patience, puts the residency in process language before it becomes a resort calendar. The island-grown herbs and produce then give the kitchen a local vocabulary without asking Acquaviva to abandon his Italian foundations.

Acquaviva has described the residency as a chance to share traditions in a different setting while working alongside Frank and the Pibati team. Acquaviva described the method as learning from one another, respecting the ingredients in front of you, and creating something guests can connect with.

How to book the 2026 residency in Raa Atoll

The Mare & Sapori lunch is included for guests on Full Board and All-Inclusive meal plans.

Advance reservations are recommended through kothaifaru@alilahotels.com, especially for the eight-guest pizza sessions.

The Joshua Acquaviva Maldives residency will be measured in small things: how Acquaviva handles dough away from Naples and Milan, how Wackerhagen’s team folds island-grown herbs into Italian forms, and what remains on the Pibati bench after ten days of shared service.